Surplus of Carrots = Carrot Cake
Based on NYT Recipe
Dry:
2 cups of all-purpose
2 teaspoons of baking powder
2 teaspoons of baking soda
2 teaspoons of ground cinnamon
3/4 teaspoon of NaCl
3 cups of grated carrots (~ 5.7oz/dry cup)
2 cups of sugar
Wet:
4 Large Eggs
1/2 cup of Canola Oil
1/2 cup of toasted butter (1 stick of butter was my deviation from the original recipe)
1 teaspoon of vanilla extract (Recipe did not call for this…I added)
Instructions:
Turn on your oven and heat to 350F…this is first because if you are like me, you forget and then have to do this later
Grate your carrots! You can use a food processor if you have the grating attachment. I do not have the grating attachment…BOO-HOO! So, I had to risk my fingers and knuckles with a manual grater.
Sift and mix the flour, baking soda, baking powder, ground cinnamon and NaCl into a separate bowl.
Brown your butter….DO NOT BURN YOUR BUTTER
Mix sugar, oil and (COOLED) brown butter until smooth
Add your eggs one at a time and the mixture should become smoother
Add your carrots
Add your dry ingredients, mix until all dry ingredients are mixed in and the mixture is smooth. Use a whisk by hand or paddle by mixer
Pour your mixture into a cake pan, I used loaf pans and bake at 350F for approx. 40-55min.
Check the cakes at 20min mark and rotate so it cooks evenly
At the 35-40min mark, check if it has cooked. Stick a knife somewhere in the middle. When you pull the knife out, it should come out relatively clean. Meaning there should be no signs of liquid or excessive moistness on the knife.
Once done, let it cool for 5-10min in the pan. The cake should retract a little, enough to release from the sides. Take a spatula and work around the sides to fully release the cake. Place the cake on a cooling rack and let it cool down further or…eat it before anyone else asks for some.
Manual Grating Carrots
Use the finest grate. Place the carrot tip side down onto the grate, the thicker part of the carrot will help with holding and control. With medium pressure down, grate the carrots in a circular pattern.
Note the texture of the carrots, it should be very moist.
If you have a scale…
Weighing your grated carrots is infinitely easier then trying to measure using a measuring cup.
Do not forget to tare or zero the scale with an empty bowl! This way the scale will be set to 0 with an empty bowl and provide you with the weight of the carrots only.
A little math is involved here..approx. 5.7oz per cup of grated carrots. Looking for 3 cups, that is equivalent to 17.1oz or 1lb 1oz (16oz per lb).
Browning Your Butter
Over medium heat, brown place your butter and heat. Things to notice in this pic is the froth that butter makes will make it difficult to determine the brownness of the butter. Stir regularly and remove from heat to inspect, like what I did in this picture. Note the particles at the uncovered aspect of the pot. Those little brown bits are the buttery magic we are after. You will also see some toasted particles in the froth. After this inspection the butter was browned to my desired brownness in another min or two.
The process requires attention as butter is very easy to burn. You do not have to keep the pot on the heat. I suggest picking it up and inspecting it. Use a whisk so it scraps off the deliciousness from the bottom of the pot.
Mix!
Difficult to see…but you want the dough to be smooth and ALL the dry ingredients thoroughly mixed.
Pour in to your forms and bake…
We ended up with two loaves…by the end of the night, there was 1 loaf (minus the a little of the top end so it fits in the container).
Needless to say, The Motley Crew loved this and the toasted butter gave some delicious notes to the taste. So this recipe is a Menu keeper.
Experiment and make it your own…
T
